Calvin Harris Debuts “Sweet Nothing” Video Featuring Florence Welch

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For his new single, “Sweet Nothing,” Calvin Harris managed to land a vocal track from Florence + the Machine singer Florence Welch in a swap. The two also collaborated on the video, which is a dark look at lower class British life.

Directed by Vincent Haycock, who also helmed Harris’s “Let’s Go” and VMA winning “Feel So Close” videos, the scene is set in a seedy strip club where Welch performs as the androgynous singer in a room full of half-dressed girls.

Every shot is dark and dingy, to express a sense of heaviness for the characters as well as impress upon the viewer that they’ve entered the dark underworld of night. Harris makes his first appearance as a patron in the club, watching her. Elsewhere, a Lindsay Lohan look-alike is caressed by a man she obviously cares nothing for.

Another vignettes plays out, where a man — who will later be seen as Welch’s boyfriend — is beaten up in the street by a gang of thugs after picking up some take out.

The camera cuts to Welch arguing backstage with Harris and fighting with her boyfriend at home. Finally it settles on her on stage, being overcome by emotions. She begins ripping off her clothes. She seems to encompass everyone’s distress, literally feeling and acting out the pain of her boyfriend who is getting quite a severe beating.

It’s unclear what brought everyone to the desperate situations they currently find themselves in, but when Harris is seen paying off the men who beat Welch’s boyfriend it adds up. She has orchestrated everything and is now making herself pay on the stage of a strip club.

Just want to note how impressive @flo_tweet performance is in the @calvinharris video. She brought the heat hard. Good work Florence.

In an interview with Fuse, Welch says the collaboration came about because she was looking for a remix from Harris for one of her songs and he was looking for a vocal for one of his, so the two agreed to switch.